But only for a week. During which time I was on holiday from the day job, which meant of course spending a lot more time doing authorish and musicackle things...

Such as?

Well, you might have caught me guesting on Steven C. Davis’s Contemporary Progressive Rock show* on Reading4u.co.uk Community Radio Station on 20th August (you can listen to a recording of my first visit to Steven’s show, back in June, here). Steven, as you may well be aware**, is an author*** as well as a DJ, and also is organiser of the forthcoming Raising Steam steampunk festival in Reading, UK on 21st and 22nd September.

The music, as you might imagine, was inspired throughout the show. But what scintillating intellectual debates perpetuated throughout our 2 hour conversation? Er... mainly a discussion about cookies. Variously frog, toad and dragonfly flavoured as the night progressed, not to mention the serious question of whether cloven hooves would assist in holding baking trays. Thanks to all those on facebook who joined in these serious discussions (you’re all mad!); and of course to both Steven and Reading4u.co.uk for inviting me to guest for a second time.

Actually, it’s very interesting spending some time with a fellow author, as conversations tend to spark in unexpected directions, that aren’t always about cookies. I’ve come away with several nice ideas for new writings shaped by my talk with Steven, though to be fair it was mostly the off-air conversation that made this happen. What has he come away with? Possibly a resolution never to mention cookies in the studio again... but anything else, you will have to ask him yourself...

What else has been happening? Well, the ongoing investigation into e-books means that it’s highly likely**** that The Home Front, Volume 1 of the Automata Wars, will make it into electronic format this autumn. And as previously mentioned, we’ve been working on videos; so that a youtube offering of the launch presentation for The Front Line should be available soon...

Trench footage for video

On the pure writing front, Volume 3 of The Automata Wars has now commenced. Don’t get too excited just yet – for me the first draft of any work consists of effectively vomiting words onto the page***** just to capture all the ideas before they, giggling and screaming, escape. It will be drafts two and three that really start to finesse Vol3, and they’re a way off yet.

And finally for writing related things – my publisher The Last Line will as usual be at the Asylum, Lincoln, the UK’s biggest steampunk convention on 13 – 15 September. I will be in attendance, so please say hello if you see me. And buy a book. Or seven.

Turning to things musicackle, Crimson Clocks are back in the studio, recording another six tracks to follow up last year’s Ingeniously Evil EP******. Even though we are now a four piece, I think you’ll find a lot of the new tracks a little harder edged than the previous ones, though we have, of course, lost none of our quirky charm (ahem).

Crimson Clocks will, of course, be next performing at Steven C. Davis’s Raising Steam festival. We’re playing on Saturday 21st September at the Curzon Club, along with a host of other excellent bands over the two days – tickets are available here:And don’t forget, it’s all for charidee, mate – for charity New Futures Nepal, to be exact, who are very close to Steven’s heart. Hope you can make it!

*Listen live via your PC or mobile device every Tuesday night, 10pm - Midnight UK time, on www.Reading4u.co.uk**If you’ve read any of these blogs before, you certainly will be*** find out more at www.tenebroustexts.com****As in almost-definitely-positively-certainly-but-not-wanting-to-jinx-it***** Hope you weren’t eating your dinner.******Available through this website and at gigs – but nearly sold out of the current batch...

So we wave goodbye to Steampunk Stamford, a thoroughly enjoyable day, if a very long one (early morning sickly cats and late night diversions with missing road signs do not make things easy!), and head on to the next event...

You can expect a mix of eclectic tunage, random gibberish, and probably book related natter too - Steven is an author in his own right. We'll be taking requests and chatting to listeners via the facebook page for the event. And we will of course be talking about his upcoming festival in Reading - no, that'll be the other festival in Reading - Raising Steam!

Raising Steam is a 2-day extravaganza in September, bringing together 11 acts from across the Steampunk and Progressive Rock worlds, including Crimson Clocks, Tom Slatter, The Mechanisms, Metropolis, Montague Jacques Fromage and many many more. There will also be traders offering steamy wares during the event, and there are rumours that there will be an outbreak of tea duelling! Not only that, the entire shindig is to raise funds for charity New Futures Nepal

Before Raising Steam, though, there's some other little projects in the pipeline... for example, some youtube footage of the launch of The Front Line will soon be available for your perusal, along with some teaser trailers of other works. I'm currently collecting video footage and still images to cut in to the existing footage; yesterday's location shooting involved a trek to an iron age hill fort called British Camp in the Malvern Hills - it's not all glamour, you know! And hopefully, a little later this year, we'll start to have The Automata Wars series available as e-books...

So all this and more to discuss on next weeks show - tune in, turn on, and click on 'listen live'... (Wasn't that how it went?)

This Saturday I will mostly be in Stamford, Lincolnshire, at Steampunk Stamford, where I will be undertaking two feats of marvellousness*

Firstly, along with fellow author and Reading4u.co.uk DJ Steven C. Davis, I will be holding a writing workshop. But this is no ordinary writing workshop. This one features those snakeoils of biscuits, Iced Gems and Party Rings! Oh, yes, and there'll be some writering-y stuff too. To whit:

LM Cooke & Steven C. Davis present… An intrepid expedition into the writing world; starting at the start, or possibly at the end, and taking in the middle somewhere along the way. A host of characters, both savoury and unsavoury; the possibility of discussion of pies, both savoury and unsavoury; as our protagonist and antagonist help you to map your own journey through the perils of word wrangling...

Photo courtesy Dave Frith Photo

And at the same event in the evening, I'll be joining Crimson Clocks to play a set of our finest musicackle music-ness, to be later followed by BB Blackdog!

Steampunk Stamford promises to be an exciting first event for the town, beginning on Friday night with magic lantern displays & Hurdy Gurdy performance; Saturday features a range of traders and workshops, competitions such as Steampunk Your Pet and much much more... and of course, me! Oh, and Steven. But most importantly, iced gems....

Author

I'm a writer of steampunk/ fantasy fiction, singer/musician and writer at LM Cooke Music, singer in the parody band Mediaeval Biaetches, occasional historian, and co-presenter of the Gothic Alternative Steampunk and Progressive web radio show. Here I will ramble vaguely about stuff. Friends, countrymen, and people who aren't countrymen, lend me your ears...